Francesco Filidei’s first opera is dedicated to the Italian priest, poet, philosopher and astronomer Giordano Bruno. Bruno postulated the endlessness of the cosmos and the eternality of the universe. This set him against the prevailing opinion of the day of a geocentric world subdivided into spheres. Weighing much more heavily back then was the fact that his pantheistic theses of an endlessly material world left no room for the Hereafter since a universe devoid of a beginning excluded creation and its eternal existence. He was found guilty by the Inquisition for heresy and magic and sentenced to death at the stake by the governor of Rome. After consultation with the Pontifical Council for Culture and a theological committee held in the year 2000 Pope John Paul II declared the execution unjust from an ecclesiastical point of view.

What prompted the composer to focus on Giordano Bruno and research old instruments was the discovery of the “Biagi du Latran”, the organ of the Lateran Basilica whose history stretches back into the 16th century and which was consecrated in the year of Bruno’s death. This instrument has been restored and extended on numerous occasions although it has remained unchanged for over 400 years.